Site Founder

Outstanding graphically! I was going to give you an 'excellent', what is it on that poll? Is OMG = excellent? Let me know so that I can vote!
How did you make the lines match perfectly with your YouTube windows? Did you measure them? Very artistic!

Admin

Outstanding graphically! I was going to give you an 'excellent', what is it on that poll? Is OMG = excellent? Let me know so that I can vote!
How did you make the lines match perfectly with your YouTube windows? Did you measure them? Very artistic!

Click to expand...

Yes OMG is excellent xD. Yeah I measured them so that they fit with the different things on the channel.

Site Founder

I never used it but I think it's a cool application, I will have to learn it. But I think the principle of all graphic design applications are the same. Just like any other graphic design program, it should have basic function like crop, then crop your pirate from the big background. Then you have to delete or clean up the surrounding. There is a laso tool in Photoshop (bitmap-based) to take out the big chunks of the background, or use eraser tool to clean parts meticulously. This is in bitmap mode though ... so you will end up saving your pirate as a jpg (most probably).

Then go to GIMP (or any other vector-based application). I would assume that you can do layers. Put your pirate at the very front layers, and add as many layers as you would like for the background. It's easier to edit and move around if you use layers, cause you can move each layer independently around. Then start drawing on each layer ... like abstract thing, or text, or stars or basically whatever ... you can even paste or import another image or photo into it if you want to. You can make special effect on every layer, for instance, you can put a 'glowing effect' or 'shadow' or fading effect ... around your pirate, or any abstract shape that you just drew. The sky is the limit ... this is where "creativity" takes actions!

Now the image result of this vector-based applications is usually not jpg, but you can always convert it to a jpg or gif at the very end when you are completely done, in order to upload it in your YouTube. Just a note, we always want to edit the image in the original GIMP program, because you need the vector quality ... that's what makes everything looks 'smooth', like in signatures that John does, i.e. glow, shadow, splash, lightning; all look smooth. Bitmap cannot produce those, because it's completely different concept.

The "hard" part is matching the exact lines around each box like in you tube, you have so many sections. But you can 'trick' it by using tracing paper and draw over your computer screen how big and where the exact position of each box is. And I usually always leave one layer as a background, and put it on the very back of all layers. It's cool if you make graduated colors, and set your opacity to below 100% (means it becomes transparent), then you can see any layer underneath it showing through.

If you want me to extract your pirate and clean him up for you, just let me know. Then I'll post it in here for you, ready to use. Good luck and have fun!

Admin

Thanks I'll keep that in mind I could use templates for the youtube background, but Idk...

Click to expand...

Or I could cut your pirate out. Just be sure to have your pirate in front of a clear background, such as the ocean so I can get a nice, clean cut. Otherwise, it is hard for me to guess where your pirate's arm is or something while I'm zoomed in real close to get that nice cut.

Site Founder

Or I could cut your pirate out. Just be sure to have your pirate in front of a clear background, such as the ocean so I can get a nice, clean cut. Otherwise, it is hard for me to guess where your pirate's arm is or something while I'm zoomed in real close to get that nice cut.

Click to expand...

Thanks, mate. But I really would like to know how to use gimp for my background first. I already have gimp, but now what?

Site Founder

Great advice, John! If there is a template, don't try to start from scratch ... But if you must, start by clicking File-New, then you have to pick the size of image (I think it's the size of computer monitor or website screen). Then you'll have your "drawing board", and start designing on it.

Cool! It has layers too! I just downloaded it ... This is such a bummer for Adobe team ... now ppl don't have to have their products!